In the pursuit of a succinct approach, the mixtape by Bronx Slang could be summed up simply: fucking dangerous. Of course, this is a site where we need to be a little bit more loquacious. That said this will be a shortish review. All you need to do is immerse your inner cochlea to these two veterans.
The Bronx Kill Mixtape (released on the legendary Fabyl) is a verbose, tight, and lyrically intelligent project. It is a polemic mixtape of now. 2020 (and its multitude of stories) get the Bronx Slang treatment and the duo are in no mood for sugar coating any subject they verbalise in their raw matter of fact manner.
A socially astute 18:43 minutes of intricate bars take in all manner of subjects: covid, racism, Trumpism, deaths caused by that nuanced form of disproportional po po justice. All subjects get the Bronx Slang treatment. George Floyd’s death saturated in the acrid injustice is a constant. At least three tracks (maybe more) reference the inability to breath. The track at 11:11 min in particular states-
Cos I’m down to my last breath
Yeh down to my last breath
Down to my last breath
So, you betta get your knee from off my neck
Significantly, there is an implied feeling (we feel) in this track (and throughout the mixtape) that if you don’t get your knee ‘from off my neck’, things could turn ugly. Perhaps we need some educated anarchy.
As a set up for their forthcoming album, this mixtape sets things up nicely. Hopefully when they drop their album they stay on this raw, go fuck yourself attitude. Got to say this is right up there as one of the hottest releases in this quarantined year.